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Distrust and piracy go together like PB&J

When the entertainment industry treats consumers like criminals in order to …

Piracy is fueled by distrust, according to a report by PR firm Edelman. The entertainment industry ranks close to last among industries that 18-34 year olds worldwide trust, coming in after the insurance industry in some countries. This lack of trust in the entertainment industry leads many young people to download music and films illegally, according to Variety, because they don't feel that the industry is providing them a good enough value for their money.

The level of distrust is particularly prominent in Europe, with 41 percent of 18 to 34 year olds in the UK and 54 percent of those in France saying that they don't trust the entertainment industry to provide a good value. "People are asking if I am going to pay for my entertainment, what value are you going to give us?" Edelman's Gail Becker toldVariety.

Young adults also feel that the entertainment industry doesn't respect their rights as consumers of digital content, which certainly doesn't help to foster warm, fuzzy feelings towards paying for content. "It's bad news for the entertainment companies in that consumers are saying they're used to getting what they want, when they want, without paying for it on the Internet," Becker said. 35 percent of those surveyed in the UK felt this way, along with 46 percent in France.

On the flipside, the majority of young people in the UK and France were confident in the entertainment industry's ability to widely distribute content online, according to the International Herald Tribune. "The message about legal availability is coming through," Becker told IHT. "When I think about how recently the complaint was that they were making it hard to find legal music for sale online, this is really progress."

But widespread availability won't be enough redeem themselves in the eyes of the digital generation. What can the entertainment industry do? First, they can take a serious look at DRM. It's no wonder that no one seems to trust the entertainment industry when Hollywood has admitted that DRM isn't about limiting piracy, but rather selling more copies of movies and music. It appears as if the music industry is readying itself to take a cautious step forward, at least—that is, if we are to take recent comments by music industry execs at face value. If the music industry eventually goes DRM-free, will the movie industry follow?

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui